~ My thoughts in my words

Monthly Archives: August 2008

I was watching the NDTV channel watching the interview of Meenakshi Reddy, the author of ‘You are here’ and it was interesting to find her starting off with blogging some 4 years ago. And the discipline of blogging morphed into a book. Sometimes I wonder, what is it that makes one blog regularly? I believe the primary motivation for blogging comes from the feedback one receives from the readers. What if one has just one reader, the author himself? It implies that he needs encouragement, and for that, some selling.

None of my friends blog regularly. In fact, they do not write anything on their own, except taking in bits and pieces of text and graphics from varied sources and putting them as a scrapbook. So where is the creativity? Making a scrapbook definitely requires a hell lot of creativity, but most people are too lazy to do even that unless required to do so for their work.

I think I have been blessed with ideas and words at the same time, and hence I keep blogging, but I don’t know what sells, and how to sell it, for my when I ask someone to read this, they do it and then forget about it. May be the content is not interesting enough (though I find most of the stuff interesting to myself). So the big question: what makes a blog interesting?

First, the genre should be tasteful to the palettes of the reader. While it is not possible to make it interesting for everybody, it can definitely entice a good mass. I know there are blogging communities and there are regular bloggers, but why doesn’t anyone want to read my blog. It could be that they don’t find it interesting enough, or perhaps they don’t like to read a lot of text! So what to do to make it interesting?

To do away with the perception of a lot of text, it would be good to include some pictures in the blog. But the real challenge is to make it interesting! Usage of humour can be a good way to ensure this. Another way is to write about the day to day activities and happenings….but who would be interested to know about what I do daily??

If you have read this till here, it means you have the patience to go through my blog. Any suggestions?? Please comment!!

Since childhood, I have learnt a simple formula for success: to manage money well by using some part of the monthly salary as expenses, and save the rest for the rainy day. This is a typical philosophy of a middle class household, and hence the household expenses need to be controlled, and hence often kept at a minimum.

I found my Dad looking at the prospect of making some money by means of an agency, and he decided to work as an UTI agent. Since he could not do it himself, by virtue of being employed already, my Mom was the registered agent. The additional income came as commissions from the investments made by the people he could rope in.

Some people frowned at the prospect of him making rounds of the society, while selling the idea of investment when awareness was poor. They even thought it to be a technique of siphoning money.

Some time back I was talking to a friend, who hardly cares about his salary from the company (which is substantial anyway), but uses his ‘other sources of income’ to meet his expenses. It was obvious that the other sources gave much more than the salary did.

So if other sources can give more than what one earns in a salary, why shouldn’t one look for these sources? The reason most people don’t do it, is because they want to take life easy, and are not ready to take the associated risks. For the secondary line of business has its own set of problems, and is a mini enterprise. In some conservative societies, making some additional money is even considered evil.

I believe that one should look at the other sources of income, since jobs security is a thing of the past. It makes sense to sharpen one’s skills with the objective of selling it in the market. It often happens that one has many skills, but is either unable to sell it, or there isn’t a lucrative market. I have also seen situations where the skill one has is so commoditized that the rates are too low for the efforts needed.

So from the individual’s point of view, one must look for developing skills that can be sold in the market, and make efforts to sell it. There are options for everybody, it is important to keep one’s eyes and ears open. It is important to make contacts, and use these contacts for one’s benefit!! One’s success is not dependent on the good work, but the way one can impress the people who can pull him upward. One needs to look for ways so that he can enter the tax return entering numbers over and above the form 16.

Sowmya’s birthday bash turned out to be one of the biggest get togethers since SVR days. He had planned a treat to the Puneri junta, and we (Lakab, Baba and me) joined them for the two day fiesta.

It was a sudden plan: the AKU emails only thrilled me into believing that I needed to go for the meet. And so I asked Lakab as well, who was more than willing. Punna couldn’t make it because of his office work.

We stayed at GGR, and I felt so comfortable at the house they had so lovingly maintained. The artifacts were at the right places, two rooms and a hall, with gentle breeze coming through the 6th floor balcony ..and I felt like heaven.

We went around to CCD, then to the restaurant named ‘Gandharv Palace’. There wasn’t a single board that displayed that name. thanks to non-veg, Telang was saved the choicest of abuses.

We went on with Lakab’s never ending stories of Mexico, the real estate situation in Pune, Annu’s unreachable home…We were actually unable to locate his home, thanks to the dug up roads.

It gave me a chance to meet some of my old friends: Vivek – Hemali, Anubhav – Sayali, Telang – Aditi, Soumya, Siddhish, Mrig – not to mention Lakab and Baba.

It was a weekend that cannot be put into words…it was a neet I wouldn’t forget too soon.

The iphone officially (and legally) saw the light today, with Vodafone and Airtel pursuing this fixed service provider product. It was expected for quite some time now, the bookings for the 3G machine ran into lakhs. Yet the prices are not commensurate with the aspirations of the general public. Priced at Rs 31900 and 36000 for the two models, it may be the most hyped phone till date, but is it worth that much.

The phone definitely has a snob value and will be used for that purpose.

What’s interesting is that its competitors have come up with models resembling the iphone.

Nokia N96, Samsung F480, LG Omnia look similar with features often surpassing the iphone. The best touch phone, HTC, also sports its new model smartphone which is as good as an HTC should be. These models are priced significantly below the i. we wouldn’t be surprised if we get a range of counterfeit Chinese models that look like the iphone in the market.

The cons: the battery replacement will have to be done at the dealer, you cannot switch service providers, and after sales service for apple products is very limited in India.

So will it appeal to us? It is not meant for the mass and probably even business users will not find it interesting.

Yet as Americans do, they market their products really well. And the ads are just great!!

Some years back I heard the above term which was meant to label the workers whose brains were used more than the brawn. And I was happy to be one of them. Because my prejudice told me that the ones using their gray cells are valued more, both in monetary terms as well as social status.

The professions employing knowledge workers include doctors, lawyers, teachers and professionals who are adept at making sense of inexplicable things.

When I moved out of my engineering in 2002, the IT sector was employing hoards of the knowledge workers. It was later that I realized that the sector is brimming with people who have moved in for the sake of easy life and higher cash flow. But they lacked the aptitude needed to make IT work.

But I was wrong. To build IT systems is one thing, to run it commercially is another. The latter (often) doesn’t require a lot of innovation, and is akin to a clerk in a traditional organization making the same reports and doing the same job every passing day. I felt that IT, in fact was an abode of sophisticated clerks.

I’ve had the opportunity to explore the ways of working of some traditional manufacturing organizations as well. The culture may be different, so might be the content, but the basic essence of work remains the same. With multiple levels of hierarchy, there are people with varied qualifications, each doing work they best can. From the outside it might appear crappy, but the fact remains that such dirty work also needs to be done. To add to the comfort of the officers, there are office boys, who incidentally are also employees of the organization. I have also seen a few young promising individuals, who working in a different role. These people are usually highly qualified, self motivated, and get to learn things from their bosses, and subsequently move up the ladder. These look at the strategic view of things, and apply their brains to innovate things which add real value to the company. TAS of the Tatas is one such example.

Arent these individuals knowledge workers? You bet they are. They look at things differently; they are trained to move fast. Tata also has the concept of Fastrack, whereby qualified and performing people are rapidly moved up the ladder, bypassing years of experience. Companies that are forward looking have separate careers for such individuals.

Comparing this with the IT world, even here there are roles that can be given to the better ones. The difficult part is to identify whom to push forward. Usually everyone is equally qualified, and with retrenchment being the norm, it gets difficult to identify, leave alone retain them. That’s because everyone wants to make hay till the sun shines.

IT companies must take a cue from the new generation companies in the traditional sector, to have more lucrative career paths for the more promising individuals. In its absence, the normal growth pattern is far from interesting. There are both promising and not so promising, both hard workers and hardly-workers. It takes a good deal of effort to pinpoint individuals who are loyal, hard working as well as brilliant.

As the IT industry matures, it will get imperative for companies to make the differentiation at various levels. Without this, there will be a lot of bright people ‘caught in the wrong job’.

It is one of those days when I have a lot of time, have no work, no one to talk to, and worst: I am bored. It is a perfect recipe for losing my head. So I had planned some work in advance: things one would have to do if he were in a family. I had to get the safety valve of my cooker repaired. Plus it included some shopping on the way at Andheri, and some more from Big Bazaar for the foodstuffs. But that was ephemeral. I was back by 1, to find myself doing nothing but watching TV.

While the independence weekend was a boon to many, as evident from the mass exodus from the city, I was stuck in this place. A lot of people asked me if I were making a trip to Kolkata, but I declined, citing reasons of financial problems. My last trip had set me back by Rs 15k. And I was in mood to hurt myself further.

Last evening I decided to get some respite to the most peaceful place I have ever known: the Siddhivinayak temple. I don’t know what’s there, but it definitely takes me out of confusion and gives me reasons to be happy. To add to the fun, I bought 2 laddu packets; and they were finished by the time I am making this article!!

The next trip had to be something I wanted to have for long. It was a trip to Virar. Quirky by the world standards, but I love traveling (it’s a different issue that I hardly get to travel on official trips, so all my escapades are self sponsored). So I boarded a train from Churchgate for the 60 km journey by the Virar fast local.

It felt like a long distance train. People were so relaxed! Some had come to the town for leisure, but most appeared to be returning from work. But the usual hurry was non existent. Almost all the passengers would be traveling for over 35km (since they would have taken the alternatives, if it were any lesser). Some college students were also having fun on their way back. The weather was cool with very little showers. The hawkers were trying to sell their cheap wares. The greatest problem of traveling in a second class compartment is BO. And people don’t seem to mind it. Either I cannot tolerate it now, or perhaps I am not experienced enough in traveling in such crowded trains.

Bombay central with its multitude of long distance trains reminded me of my childhood when I would wait for months for a few hour train journey. It was so much fun to jump on the train berths, switch on the fans and the lights, enjoy the window seat view….

I was out for a new experience, because anything that gets a bore becomes a drag on my mental well being. I have realized it, but I don’t get the changes by default. It has to be grabbed! And hence the idea of taking the train to going to various places. Oh! The central line trains were going faster….

The crowd started swelling at Dadar. But the train didn’t move too fast. I thought that the locals moved faster than the express trains, but I was wrong. I realized I had made a mistake of taking an evening train, the very idea of witnessing greenery had come to a naught: it was getting dark, I was only at Bandra. It was my second time on a Virar fast train, the first one was a nightmare! I remember in 2005, when I was new to this place, I had mistakenly boarded a Virar fast train to get down at Andheri. I hadn’t known that people would be so ruthless to vehemently oppose getting down at Andheri (with the apparent logic that resources like virar fast should not be wasted for reaching Andheri). It’s a matter of survival.

A Lata Mangeshkar song on FM took me somewhere else. It told me that there are better (and more interesting) things in life than the boring daily chores including SAPing. I believe that music is divine; the right kind on the ears can be heavenly.

It was getting hotter inside as the train went past Borivali, thanks to the homosapiens. Most of the people appeared to belong to lower middle or lower class, for regions beyond Borivali are comparatively cheaper, since they are not parts of Mumbai. In some places like Bhayandar and Mira Road, the houses were nice, and were better spaced. These places did not have the Mumbai type look, they were more like small towns.

It seems there is an unwritten law in the Virar local that one is supposed to give up the seat for the persons standing, if one has traveled comfortable for over an hour. It is a way of sharing the resources in the era of scarcity. I was asked to vacate my prime seat to make way for the stinking man. I wanted to slap him!

Most people in the outskirts beyond the Mumbai borders do not live, they only survive. In the reign of rising inflation, things are only getting worse. People are forced to give up the basic comforts to simply survive. What a country has this become! After 61 years of independence, we should have been a prosperous country. But we have become rich in population, and poor in most of the other aspects. It is no easy to live this way, if one has to travel in such dingy compartments everyday to work. But they are left with no job prospects in other places. I wonder what advantage does Mumbai have compared to other cities. What makes it the most sought after city? It is the financial capital, and has the head offices of the majority of the Indian companies. I can understand the original advantage the city had: of being a port. Today the port advantage is obviated, since factories are hardly present in this city. It is cascading effect, just like I came here for better projects, for a better work culture, for better opportunities…and the like. To pass on this advantage on other cities would imply a lot of effort!

I finally reached Virar, but could not take the same train back because I didn’t have a ticket. I had to walk some 2km from platform 8 to 1, to get a ticket. I was only able to take an Andheri local at 8:45. I had missed another train, thanks to the smartcard reader not working on printing the tickets. I will write on this sometime later.

The return journey was uneventful, I was soon at Andheri. I took another crowded (where was the crowd going south on a Saturday evening?) train back to Santacruz.

It was a 100+ km journey, but an interesting one nevertheless…at least worth mentioning in my blog!

It takes me to some of the mythological origins of Hindu philosophy: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer and Shiva the destroyer were the roles for life on this earth. Being a creator was considered a matter of prestige and I loved being the creator, an original thinker and a developer (not to be taken in the software context).

That’s why I was fascinated with engineering. To engineer is to create, to manufacture and to construct. This was the charm of engineering and I enjoyed learning things, though was mocked at for learning a science and not engineering. It didn’t matter what I learnt, but I had fun nevertheless.

I had the pride of being an engineer from a prestigious institute and loved myself for it. But with time, I was forced to appreciate some of the other aspects. The importance of Vishnu dawned on me when I found myself working for a maintenance project.

But off late, I have started looking at another aspect of productivity. It is ‘ensuring’. There are multiple ways to ensure things work. The project manager makes sure things happen on time. The junta might call the manger to doing nothing (most often than not, they actually do little), but keeping an eye in the direction of activities is also a task. So is quality assurance. They need to make sure that the output confirms to specifications.

In the accounting front, the accounts team needs to monitor the debits and the credits. They need to consolidate the two sides so as to give a clearer picture of the financial health of the company.

The bosses need to ensure things move, and they do it at the higher levels.

One’s career is not determined with what one does, but what one can ensure that things get done. The larger the ‘thing’ in dollar terms, greater the importance.

So one can be powerful if he can manage people and money….the larger the number, greater the power.

We indians love to create a hype. And we find happiness whenever there is a hype. Plausible or not, there are always reasons to celebrate. And so when India wins against Sri Lanka in test or one day cricket, we burst crackers, dance on the streets and stay glued to the TV to watch the winner taking the cup. Which means we Indians are such a happy lot! That’s something the world should cheer us for.

We Indians also go to the other extreme to rail against those who have not won. And so they are termed as failure. One may find effigies of those persons being burnt, beaten, or garlanded with shoes for betraying the nation. And so if one doesn’t win, they are considered as first class criminals. And they may not get any further opportunity, because we are a big nation with too many talents..opportunities should not be wasted. And the superstar of yore may soon be lost in oblivion.

Why such extreme sentiments? Because we Indians are emotional. We survive in spite of scarcity, and so it gets difficult for the general populace to forgive. The media does no good when it comes to such things. They compete against each other only to grab attention; often to the extent of misguiding the aam junta.

Bindra has created history by winning a gold medal in the individual category. He is sure to get a fair share of advertisements as well..but what next? Only time will tell.

Mumbaikars must have seen this ad in some one-tenths of hoardings across the city. It did not mean much, but the ads meant something serious. “Ye choone se nahi failta”, “adhiktam logo ko hai”, and the like comments meant that there is something big coming up.

And so it was out a couple of days ago. KILB stands for “Kam insurance lene ki bimari”. It is a bimari for sure, and one that’s big enough to attract attention. Somehow I could not really link the ad to an insurance company, though I don’t yet know if they mean life or medical insurance. I wouldn’t be surprised if they deal in general as well. Its quite funny to realize that such stunts are being done to attract attention.

KILB’s latest ads talk about choosing the right amount of insurance. Assuming they are talking about life, my guess is that the right insurance should be determined by two factors: the future needs (like children’s education) and current income (which will determine the capacity to pay the premium). Yet in the plethora of options available to confuse the naïve customer, there right coverage is often not arrived in the correct manner.

Why should a customer take a kam insurance? Or not at all? There are so many factors governing this. At the very first, the common man has very little idea of actuarial sciences. And there are so many who are hooked on to insurance as an investment, with hopes that they will get some amount at the end of the policy maturity. It might go well for whose who are looking for security, rather than prosperity; and insurance companies are taking risk away from their lives. So the onus lies with the insurance agent, who is the first point of contact for the customer. The agents usually are paid bonuses according to the premium they can garner from the customer, and so they never encourage the term life insurance.

For those for whom their employers are paying the premium, they can rest easy; since the coverage is a multiple of their salary (and hence commensurate with their pay). But in spite of that, people go ahead and take insurance, calling it an investment! Like under coverage, over insurance does no good unless one knows that he might be gone in that year!!

The calculation of risk is not easy, and insurers take the fullest advantage of this information arbitrage to make money in the name of security cover!

I have always heard people talking about their roti making skills, and their associated patriotism. The commonest joke in this genre is that the newbies’ rotis resemble the map of India. I am not too amused, as one would be when they have heard this umpteen times. But I thought I had better skills than making maps in the kitchen.

My greatest challenge while making roti is making the dough with the right amount of water. During my days at Noida, Puneet would help me out with this. Now that God wants me to make rotis (since I don’t like rice, its too heavy), I decided to try my hand at it. And wow! I was able to make perfect dough. Flattening them to a roti appeared to be a cakewalk. But what I thought I was making a good roti that swells, I realized that the shape wasn’t exactly rounded. It looked like Australia!

Being a global citizen, I didn’t mind it. After all, an Australian roti tastes exactly the same as an Indian one. Perhaps the McDonalds’ can take a cue from this, and supply burgers in the shape of the respective country (localization?).

Well, actually I haven’t cooked for the past few days, and I think I have lost my cooking skills. I was enthused to make a chana masala today, and comfortably put the chana and the potatoes in the cooker. It didn’t take long for me to realize that something was burning. And then it came to light: I had forgotten to add water!!